My Final Credit Card Churn for Two Years

While the days of credit card churns every three months are long gone, I’ve still managed to gain hundreds of thousands of points via new credit card sign-ups over the last couple years. But it seems my latest churn will be my final one for quite some time. Blame Chase 5/24.

My latest churn included the following—

Hyatt Visa Credit Card from Chase

I discussed this earlier, but was approved for this after a telephone call to Chase and moving some credit from one of my existing cards to the new Hyatt card. The Hyatt card is not a card I plan to use for anything other than Hyatt stays, but the annual free night at Categories 1-4 properties offsets the annual fee. I look forward to using the two free night sign-up bonus (at any Hyatt) at five-star property.

American Airlines Citi AAdvantage Executive Card

The 60K sign-up bonus was too good to pass up. Furthermore, I have a wallet full of Visa and American Express cards and currently not a single Mastercard. I was approved without fanfare and look forward to replenishing my American Airlines account again.

Lufthansa Miles & More World Elite Mastercard from Barclays

I had planned to wait for the return of a 50K sign-up offer, but I figured I might as well add this card to the churn. It has been more than two years since I’ve had one and the 35K sign-up bonus will pay for two domestic one-way business class tickets (lower 48) on United Airlines. Traveling from New York to LA for 17K miles in business class is a great use of Lufthansa points.

Two American Express Blue Business Plus Cards

I include this in the churn even though there was no hard credit pull for these cards. Based upon my existing relationship with American Express, I was approved for these cards under my award consulting service and for a separate venture I co-founded. While the sign-up bonus was a modest 20K, there is no annual fee on the card and 2X Membership Rewards points (the good ones that transfer to other airlines) for the first $50,000 in spending.

United MileagePlus Explorer Card from Chase

I figured I was over the limit at this point, but applied for the United Explorer Card just in case. The 50,000 mile sign-up bonus (though 07/31/17) was attractive and I have never had this card before. Not surprisingly, I was not instantly approved. I have not called the reconsideration line yet, but don’t expect to be approved for this card due to the 5/24 rule.

CONCLUSION

Now it is time to take a break from signing up for new cards. My wallet and top desk drawer are full of cards and I will just have to “make do” for the next couple years…gulp…until my clock resets with Chase and I can start over again. Who knows how much the credit card landscape will change between now and then.

I don’t except to get the Explorer card (I’ll write a separate post if I somehow get approved), but don’t mind. I’m just sad that the gravy train of the revolving credit card sign-up bonuses are nearing an end…at least for now.

About Author

Matthew

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he
travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 120
countries over the last decade. Working both in the aviation industry
and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in the New York
Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, BBC, Fox News,
CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Al Jazeera, Toronto Star, and on NPR. Studying
international relations, American government, and later obtaining a
law degree, Matthew has a plethora of knowledge outside the travel
industry that leads to a unique writing perspective. He has served in
the United States Air Force, on Capitol Hill, and in the White House.
His Live and Let's Fly blog shares the latest news in the airline
industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs and promotions, and
detailed reports of his worldwide travel. His writings on
penandpassport.com offer more general musings on life from the eyes of a frequent traveler. He also founded awardexpert.com, a
highly-personalized consulting service that aids clients in the
effective use of their credit card points and frequent flyer miles.
Clients range from retirees seeking to carefully use their nest egg of
points to multinational corporations entrusting Matthew with the
direction and coordination of company travel.

13 Comments

If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly does Chase have to offer that you’re willing to wait 24 months for? Chase UR points are amazing as is the SW companion pass, however, there are other ways to earn these (Ink 5x and 110k MS on SW card).

Assuming you were applying for 3 cards per churn and churned every 3 months you’d be forfeiting up to 24 sign-up bonuses while waiting out 5/24. Even if these bonuses were only 20k on average (which I think is really really low) that’s 480,000 miles. What am I missing? Every travel-hacker has different goals, but I’m curious why you’re willing to hold off on a lot of other opportunities.

That’s a fair question. I don’t know if Chase can top itself, but I cannot imagine not having the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Forced to innovate, I do think we’ll see another leading product from Chase. Plus, I have everything else now. Perhaps I could churn a few more AA cards, another AMEX Plat Business, and some other CITI cards, but I have a deep business and personal banking relationship with Chase and I am dreading what will amount to my first ever denial of a Chase card. Perhaps it is more psychological than rational…

Fair enough. I’m collecting/managing points for 4 adults and I’ve adopted your strategy for one of them to renew our SW pass. (but we’re still applying for business cards that don’t seem to count towards 5/24).

I don’t recommend my approach for everyone and it may even be an unwise approach for me personally, but my relationship with Chase (even having lost my affiliate links) goes deeper than just a credit card customer.

Then can you give me a good reason to continue to read your blog?
Do you write for your readers -or to gain favor with your Gestapo “affliate links”.
Once you go that way, you admit to your audience, who pay the freight for your “affliate links”, I’m not one of you- I’ve joined the other side in my motivations.

@lee kian – you’re totally off-base. Please don’t misunderstand my post. I have my savings, business account, mortgage, and other securities with Chase. No commercial relationship with the blog. And frankly I don’t see one ever occurring. I’m not trying to curry favor with anyone at Chase and I despise the 5/24 rule. But I personally like having options at Chase, I love the card products they have come out with, and for me at least it makes sense to pause my churning for a bit. This post is not intended to be direction to you but sharing my own story.

With Chase 5/24 rule, is there a way you can find out where you stand on that? I have no idea how many cards I’ve opened within the past 24 months. Could be 3, 5, or even 10.

Also, is there harm in applying for, and getting rejected by a credit card? I too would like to sign up for UA Explorer (70k bonus I’m offered), but I feel like I will get rejected. Or should I just wait like you for maybe a better Chase card?

@ Matthew — You would likely be better off just ignoring Chase. You can pick up enough BofA Alaska cards, Barclay cards, other random new products, special targeted offers, one time exceptions to AMEX once per lifetime rules, etc. that you should be able to live without Chase.

Hi Matthew, thanks for sharing your post and your reasons behind it. I’ve never had the Lufthansa on my radar until I read above you can fly on a one-way biz class for 17K miles. I checked the award chart and it seems a bit confusing. North America to North America is 55K (assuming that’s round trip). Then towards the bottom domestic is 35K. That is a nice price for a transcon. I think this card just made my list.